By Neal Peirce For Release Sunday, August 29, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
It’s tough to underestimate the peril to impartial American justice that’s been highlighted in a new report on the big-time campaign money flowing into elections for justices on state supreme courts.
Total spending on the campaigns doubled in the past decade, from $83 million in the 1990s to $207 million in 2000-2009, according the report from three nonpartisan groups — the Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
Equally alarming, those pushing the spending — corporations on one side, trial lawyers on the other — are using shell organizations such as the American Justice Partnership and the Alabama Civil Justice Reform Committee to keep their involvement hidden.
Increasingly, the special interest groups are using questionnaires to pressure judges into signaling, during campaigns, how they’ll make courtroom decisions. And there’s been a surge of nasty and costly television ads, mimicking the ugliness that pollutes so much television political advertising today.
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By Rick Cole For Release Sunday, August 29, 2010
Citiwire.net
The scandal of grossly inflated city council and top manager salaries in Bell, Calif. — and a similar story about its neighbor Vernon, Calif. — has touched a nerve. It’s being used as the poster child for public sector excess and arrogance.
What’s missing from the outrage, though, is a focus on the underlying causes — or the real cost. We’ve always known that unchecked power is prone to abuse, whether in the private or public sector — even in sacred institutions of faith. But why was such blatant abuse allowed to bloom — and why was it so long ignored? Who really pays the price for official corruption? Most urgently of all, what sensible steps should be take to ensure it is not repeated?
Without that, we may see misguided “reforms” duck the specific solutions to the real problem. Corruption is like cancer — it comes in different forms and is best curbed with specific treatments. Arbitrary new rules aimed at “reforming” every city government would be a ridiculous over-reaction. It would only further hamstring the effectiveness of local government at a time when we need more efficiency, not less. The same goes for generic and toothless reforms that simply sound good.
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